Here are The Herald’s Big 5 high school basketball rankings before end of regular season

This week’s Big 5 high school basketball rankings feature several unquestionably-elite teams in The Herald’s coverage area.

And they all, with being just days away from the end of the regular season, have a lot to live up to.

There’s the Clover girls’ team, which has topped the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association rankings poll for the past several weeks and hasn’t lost in 20 straight games. There’s the South Pointe girls’ team — which will play thrice this week due to last week’s inclement weather, and look to earn its revenge on Westwood (one of its only two losses) in its season finale.

There’s the Northwestern boys’ team, which has a chance to be perfect in Region 3-5A play after its own three games this week. And there’s also the Great Falls’ boys’ team, which hasn’t lost to a 1A team this season — and perhaps has a target on its proverbial back as “the team to beat” in this year’s playoffs because of it.

The rankings are below. Records have been updated through Thursday, Feb. 6.

Girls’ high school hoops rankings

1. Clover (22-1, 6-0)

2. South Pointe (20-2, 5-2)

3. Andrew Jackson (17-1, 9-0)

4. Legion Collegiate (13-3)

5. Fort Mill (11-9, 2-3)

Boys

1. Northwestern (19-4, 5-0)

2. Great Falls (20-3, 5-0)

3. Andrew Jackson (13-5, 8-1)

4. Clover (16-7, 4-2)

5. York Prep (17-6)

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.